Plans are underway to upgrade the status of the designated capital of Dodoma from Municipality to City council in line with preparations by the government to shift the capital city from Dar es Salaam, the National Assembly was told yesterday.

The Minister of State in President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), Mr George Simbachawene, made the revelation here when responding to a supplementary question by Mpwapwa MP, Mr George Lubeleje (CCM).

“It is just a matter of procedures but the government is set to organize itself towards upgrading the status of Dodoma from municipality to city council,” Mr Simbachawene observed.

The Minister explained further that Dodoma is among a few regions in the country with a proper master plan for its land in an area measuring 250,000 square metres. In his question, the Mpwapwa had wanted to know whether the government had plans in place to upgrade the designated capital, stating that the municipality has all it takes to become a city.

Earlier, Deputy Minister in President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) Suleiman Jaffo made similar remarks, stating that the government was making arrangement to promote the status of Dodoma.

Meanwhile, the government explained yesterday that promotion of Moshi Municipality in Kilimanjaro Region to city council has been held up due to a number of shortcomings on application by authorities in the local government to the central government.

“It is true that all legal meetings to advance the position of Moshi Municipality were held at both District Consultative Council (DDC) and Regional Consultative Council (RCC) in which the request was approved.

“However, when the application was formally made, the central government sent back the proposal for improvement on identified shortcomings,” Mr Jaffo explained.

He noted further that a team of officials from the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) was currently making assessment of applications for new administrative areas before they advice the responsible minister for further actions.

The deputy minister was responding to a basic question by Moshi Urban MP, Mr Japhary Michael (Chadema). The MP had complained that the process to upgrade Moshi started in the year 2012 but the government was yet to make a decision.